Minor Threat
Minor Threat


5.0
classic

Review

by DadKungFu STAFF
December 10th, 2022 | 10 replies


Release Date: 1981 | Tracklist


15 years from when I was first kicked in the head by it, what am I to make of all the righteous fury of Minor Threat? The most immediate aspect of the album at this stage of my life (30’s, kids, general cynicism) is its youthfulness, its bright-eyed belief in a personal code of conduct as a means for social change, as though by maintaining one’s conscious facilities, avoiding drugs, alcohol, etc. one could rise above the commercialized morass that we all seem to be trapped in and that shapes us in ways far more insidious than most of us would be willing to admit. “Well,” I think as I grin and bob my head to the impetuous indignation of Filler, “don’t I carry that belief with me in some sense, even today?” Maybe this band has had a deeper influence than I’d have at first thought. But anyone who’s had a beer knocked out of their hand at a hardcore show by some meathead with X tattoos will see the fallout of the posturing militancy engendered by the straight-edge movement, regardless of the ire such an action would doubtless inspire in its so-called founder. Straight Edge very protestant somehow, in outlook, execution and ultimate fallout, in spite of Mackaye’s explicit stance against organized religion. Perhaps its unsurprising, given the Mackaye brothers’ Episcopalian roots, that the fruit borne by Ian’s new ethos should be closer to what he was trying to get away from than he intended. But also, perhaps Mackaye’s failure to create a community free from the factionalism and chauvinism of any other social group speaks less to Mackaye’s personal philosophy than to the nature of ideology and factions.

So then, questions of social movements, religions, moral norms and the philosophical kernels contained in the idea that spilling a dude’s beer and ruining his evening is the morally upright and desirable thing to do start swirling and I begin to forget that this album is more than just a documentation of a certain mindset, it’s a brash, vital, youthful expression of that mindset, that these furious blasts of bouncing, melodic, unembellished sloganeering embody that idea that Mackaye was trying to live up to. So, if we look at it as such, as a piece of art reflective of a certain spirit, it’s absolutely vital, for its sincerity if nothing else. Each furious, 4 chord riff, shouted rallying cry, pounding, straightforward punk beat manifests that philosophy, an expression of a devastatingly simple ethos, expressed, by necessity, as elementally and earnestly as possible. Its very simplicity could only be a product of its youthfulness, and it would be easy, with the calcified cynicism of age and experience, to sneer at the naivety of the central conceit of straight edge and punk rock as a concept, but when I watch those grainy videos of a basement show in which Mackaye leads the crowd in a belted out rendition of “Happy Birthday” for the benefit of an audience member, I remember my own time in the punk scene, that sense of hope that there could be a little world, a subculture, a community free from the pull and sway of a society in which we exist merely as profit generators and media consumers. It’s a sense of hope that I’m ultimately grateful for, and a sense of hope that has continued throughout my life, first in the church, then in the punk scene and the commune, and then back in the church, and although all have at various points disappointed in some way, it’s a hope that has become constitutive of who I am. And for that, I’ll always be grateful, at least in part, to Mackaye and company.



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Comments:Add a Comment 
DadKungFu
Staff Reviewer
December 10th 2022


5496 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

CHORUS IN ALL CAPS

CHORUS IN ALL CAPS

CHORUS IN ALL CAPS

CHORUS IN ALL CAAAAAAAAAPS

MrSirLordGentleman
December 10th 2022


15343 Comments


How the hell did this not have a review?

Great community service buddy!

StonedManatee
December 10th 2022


571 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

I don’t want to hear it! None of that bullshit!!

widowslaugh123
December 10th 2022


4217 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Jesus Christ this finally got reviewed! Well said my guy have a pos

egads
December 10th 2022


150 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

tf we really never had a review of this master P

Trebor.
Emeritus
December 11th 2022


60018 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

prolly cuz everyone just reviewed Complete Discog

SomeCallMeTim
December 11th 2022


4578 Comments


I'm a person just like you, but I've got better things to do

SlothcoreSam
December 11th 2022


6428 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

I was early to finish, I was late to start

I might be an adult, I'm a minor at heart

Go to college, be a man, what's the fucking deal?

It's not how old I am, it's how I feel

kildare
December 12th 2022


469 Comments


Minor Threat has a tiny discography compared to their impact. Too bad Mackaye got disillusioned and quit the scene. Fugazi was good and all, but they never packed in the energy like these guys. Great to see them get some attention

DadKungFu
Staff Reviewer
September 29th 2023


5496 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

It's such a pure youthful vibe how can you not fw it



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